Deciding and moving on
Can I stop a test?
Why it works this way
Stopping is not losing: stop a test and pick it up where you left it.
Moving on should not mean settling. A test that cannot be set down either gets finished badly or deleted in frustration, and both lose something you put work into. So there are two ordinary ways to end a test: call it, or stop it. Neither throws anything away.
What we gave up: a one-press way to throw a test away. Only a separate cancel, which asks first, can do that.
What it is
Stopping a test ends nothing. Everything you logged stays, any cards the test was holding are freed, and the test waits in its own Stopped group at the very bottom of Tests until you resume it.
How to use it
- Open the test. In the top bar, press Stop, the outlined button just before Call it now. On a test that holds cards, the banner that says "2 spaces under test" also has a Stop the test link, and a test of one idea has a quiet Stop the test link under "What now?".
- If you have conversations logged, a dialog asks, "Stop this test?" It tells you your conversations stay in the test. Press Stop, or Keep testing to leave it running. With nothing logged, the test stops at once and a notice says "Test stopped. It waits in Tests." with Undo.
- Find it again under Stopped at the bottom of Tests. The row says when it was stopped and what was kept: "Stopped Oct 12." and "3 conversations kept".
- Press Resume on the row. You can also open the test and press Resume, the filled button in the top bar, or use the one on the "You stopped this test" page.
- The test opens where you left it, and its deadline moves forward by the time it was stopped. A test stopped on day 3 of 7 resumes on day 3.
If the test was holding cards, they are free while it is stopped. When you resume, they go on hold again.
What it will never do
- Delete or edit anything you logged.
- Call the test for you. A stopped test has no result.
- Count your stopped days against the deadline.
If something looks off
- No Stop button. A test already called has nothing to stop. A viewer on a shared board cannot stop or resume, so the button does not appear for them.
- "That did not save. Nothing changed; try again in a moment." The stop did not go through. Press Stop again.
- Resume says another test is running on that page. Only one test can hold a page. Settle or stop the other one first, then resume.
- Stopped tests do not come back on their own. After you go back to a parked path (see "What happens to my board if I change the space?"), its stopped test stays stopped until you press Resume.
- Cancel is different. If Iris, your AI guide, offers Cancel this test, a dialog asks first, tells you what you would lose ("There is no way to get them back") and gives you Keep the test. Stopping never asks you to give anything up.